How One School Under Pressure Resists 'Test Prep'

Last year, fewer than 5 percent of the students at M.S. 22 in the Bronx were considered proficient on their state math and English tests. In fact, the middle school has struggled for so long it's poised to be taken over by a state-appointed entity if that rate doesn't double this year.

Yet Principal Edgar Lin said he wouldn't succumb to the temptation of test prep, drilling kids with the skills and strategies they need to pass a standardized test.

"If we prepare kids only to make sense of the test, we're not doing our jobs," he said.

Instead, Lin preferred his teachers stay attuned to the learning standards students need to master and hope their progress is reflected in the tests. 

For example, last month the eighth graders were given a few questions from a previous English Language Arts test. It looked like standard test prep, as the kids debated whether they should have chosen A or B from the multiple-choice answers. But these test questions were deliberately selected for the class because they touched on areas where the students were weak, such as citing evidence for an argument or being able to make an inference.

At M.S. 22, this doesn't just happen a month before the test. Teachers meet several times a week to go over data from quizzes and coursework to figure out how to improve their instruction.

"The curricula doesn't know our kids," he explained. "Books don't know our kids. We know our kids."

Lin pointed to early signs the tactic was paying off: on a recent reading test, 79 percent of the eighth graders were proficient compared to 37 percent of them last year on a similar exercise.

As one of the city's Renewal schools, M.S. 22 has an extra period of instruction each day and more money for professional development.

Earlier this year, Lin brought in a coach to help teachers improve instruction around vocabulary, because so many of the students entered the middle school well below grade level in reading.